Diamond jubilee: Baseball Stars

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Diamond jubilee: Baseball Stars | NES Works 136

Рет қаралды 15,400

Күн бұрын

1989 has been a year of impressive maturation for the NES platform, but Baseball Stars really shows how far along the console-and console gaming as a whole-have come since the early days. Sure, it's another baseball game, but this one is packed with customization, season and career progression simulation, and even a business management aspect. All of this is saved to one of those newfangled lithium batteries... you know, like the ones previously used only for massive timesink RPGs. This is a meaty take on baseball, offering the depth of a PC coaching sim but the snappy immediacy of a console sports game. It's pretty much an all-time classic, and easily the single best console baseball game ever seen to this point in history.
Production notes:
Video Works is funded via Patreon ( / gamespite ) - support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its KZfaq debut! Plus, exclusive podcasts, eBooks, and more!
Why watch when you can read? Check out the massive hardcover print editions of NES Works, Super NES Works, and Virtual Boy works, available now at Limited Run Games (limitedrungame...! SG-1000 Works: Segaiden Vol. I is available NOW, and Metroidvania: The First Decade is due in 2025.
NES footage captured from Analogue Nt Mini. Video upscaled to 4K with RetroTink 4X and 720p with xRGB Mini Framemeister.

Пікірлер: 135

@RabbitEarsCh 3 ай бұрын

Knowing how many female fans KoF and SamSho would get years later, it's neat to see they were putting in cool options like the women's team here in Baseball Stars. This game is dripping with personality and love, it really gives you the impression that SNK devs gave it their all to get this one out.

@ValkyrieTiara 3 ай бұрын

Making the only NES baseball game to allow female players does feel very SNK lol

@Dwedit 3 ай бұрын

Bad News Baseball also had female players available (accessible with a button code)

@apollosungod2819 3 ай бұрын

KoF, Samurai Shodown, Virtua Fighter and Fighting Vipers actually had a lot female fans who would actually cosplay as their favorite characters and participated in actual tournaments with other skilled players... in Japan... And if you were lucky in the U.S. to have Asian friends from Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand etc who happened to look for Japanese arcade games and home systems depending if they lived close to areas where you could buy stuff back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. As it does become very difficult to find these things and even fansubbed Japanese anime sources on VHS if you were living in the suburbs.

@TomGarrett73 3 ай бұрын

I still consider this the greatest baseball game I've ever played. My friends and I were OBSESSED with this game for a solid year-and-a-half, spanning two summers.

@DarkLordNick999 3 ай бұрын

If Baseball Stars we’re remade today, the players would all be from SNK’s fighting games.

@ValkyrieTiara 3 ай бұрын

NGL I'd play the hell out of that lmao

@zaneseibert 3 ай бұрын

Now on the pitchers' mound: Athena Asamiya "PSYCHOBALLPSYCHOBALLPSYCHOBALL" Three strikes, next batter.

@Progearspec 3 ай бұрын

Team ikari warriors for baseball stars ~_^ Though clark would just grapple all the players instead lol !

@Maleketh42 3 ай бұрын

"STINGER!" *Ball disintegrates*

@super10nano1 3 ай бұрын

I spent countless hours playing this game, such a great game.

@Trainy2 3 ай бұрын

It holds up today even. It was very ahead of it's time.

@fangjokerLS 3 ай бұрын

A baseball game so good, SNK was willing to try to launch the Neo-Geo with it. I'm looking forward to the forthcoming review of Baseball Simulator 1000, which decided the one thing they could add to this crowded field was "insanity."

@jasonblalock4429 3 ай бұрын

And then Konami's BaseWars took the insanity even further.

@broy8172 3 ай бұрын

@@jasonblalock4429 and jams punching wayyyy above their belt. hot jams and fun fights that were not balanced whatsoever. "let's boot it up but just do fights!"

@sassydog5399 3 ай бұрын

Amusingly, the Ladies team has so many prestige points that a great way to farm easy cash was to fire up a VS game and have them hit your batters with pitches until the mercy rule kicked in, and then collect your winnings.

@TomGarrett73 2 ай бұрын

I absolutely did this.

@BB-te8tc 3 ай бұрын

I remember when Nintendo Power used to do "Player Profiles" in their 1992 issues, showcasing six kids per issues and their favourite games. Baseball Stars seemed to consistently show up there. As a non-sports kid, I never played it, but was always intrigued as to why it stood out so much.

@sonicskillz 3 ай бұрын

I've never been a baseball fan, but I love love LOVE this game.

@KGRAMR 3 ай бұрын

Probably THE baseball game my dad played the most on the NES. I used to see him playing Baseball Stars often and tried finishing the game at one time but never did. Maybe one day in the future i should do what he set to do with the game. RIP dad :(

@monkeyspice2010 3 ай бұрын

Absolutely loved this game as a kid. I made a team of Ninja Turtles. Called them Ralph, Don, Mikey, Leo, Splinter, etc and I got a girl from a trade and called her April. I loved raising the stats of my team! My dad and brother played it with me. Thanks for an awesome video bringing back these memories!

@jonothanthrace1530 3 ай бұрын

8:05 I hope to god that some company in Japan has made Nobunaga's Baseball Ambition. Build the ultimate team through bribery, trickery, flattery and coercion to unite the 50 fiefdoms under your pennant!

@kennethchia4194 3 ай бұрын

I was NOT expecting to see the Sickos meme in this video

@Dwedit 3 ай бұрын

Twice

@absolutezeronow7928 3 ай бұрын

Well, always nice when a baseball game merits its own episode. And looking forward to NGPC Works. Cobra Triangle next, another Rare game that I probably should play one of these days.

@BasementBrothers 2 ай бұрын

Nice to see a shout out for Chrontendo and Mr. Sparkle. You guys are both amazing!

@steviecomebacks5541 3 ай бұрын

Still to this day, my favorite baseball game

@francesarpaia 3 ай бұрын

NGPC works! You're a maniac Jeremy and I love you for it.

@JeremyParish 3 ай бұрын

It'll run as a monthly Patreon bonus series, like the Gakken/Epoch/Casio videos I've been creating. As soon as Analogue gets the DAC working with the Pocket and rolls out an update that fixes incompatibility with a few key NGPC titles like Turf Masters, I can get rollin'.

@bxsolx5086 3 ай бұрын

@@JeremyParish I can't imagine how many hours a week you pour into your videos, Limited Run, and Retronauts... I had read somewhere recently that you were dealing with some personal issues; everything okay Jeremy? -Brian

@CaptainRufus 3 ай бұрын

Only problem is I recently discovered exactly how many units were sold of that wonderful little portable with Gods own directional control. 200,000. Like.. I saw that and a little part of my soul died.

@nfugitt89 3 ай бұрын

@@JeremyParish Have to wonder what the name for that would have been in the pre-Works era. Maybe SNKing Ship or something lol

@cashnelson2306 3 ай бұрын

whenever Jeremy isn’t on screen all the other characters should be asking “wheremy’s jeremy?”

@baardbi 3 ай бұрын

Jeremy needs to have access to a time machine.

@melvinpretlow7921 3 ай бұрын

Jeremy has to go now. His planet needs him

@roundthewheelrtw 3 ай бұрын

I want my, I want my, I want my Jeremy

@LoloDePuzlo 3 ай бұрын

I hope you got a really big grin when you thought up "What's the difference between at-bat skills and combat skills?"

@Fear2Stop 3 ай бұрын

I guess Castlevania was about “whipping bat” skills 🦇

@HPRshredder 2 ай бұрын

Apologies it took me so long to get back to this to drop a comment. Was busy catching up on Chrontendo’s 1986-1989 lineup. Thank you for waiting 🙏

@daviddalrymple2284 3 ай бұрын

I do remember a "Counselor Corner" tip in Nintendo Power for this game. In order to earn a lot of money, they recommended that you play a 2P game against yourself between your custom team and the Lovely Ladies, and have the Lovely Ladies throw Ball after Ball until your custom team wins 10-0 under the mercy rule. I would use that same strategy in League Mode of "Base Wars" in order to build an unbeatable army of kill-bots.

@inkwolf77 3 ай бұрын

Is this the first Chrontendo callout in NES Works? More people should have a referral to Dr. Sparkle's practice. Also, hopefully RndStranger with Famidaily are next.

@JeremyParish 3 ай бұрын

I’m sure I’ve mentioned Chrontendo before. And I’ve used (and credited) Famidaily footage.

@inkwolf77 3 ай бұрын

@@JeremyParish Well shucks for my terrible memory then! And thank you for your well crafted videos and the great work that it takes to create them.

@ellipticalsoul 3 ай бұрын

Mike Truk and Dwigt Rortugal could only exist because they stood on the shoulders of giants

@MJFallout 3 ай бұрын

As a European, I don't even know the basic rules of Baseball, but who cares when it's also 'NES History Hour' with Jeremy.

@milkcarton6654 2 ай бұрын

One unsung benefit of sports video games is how they have taught a lot of people the rules of a few sports, including me. Im Canadian and while we have baseball and football pro teams (i'd say american football but canadian football actually has slightly different rules), all I had time for as a kid was hockey. So it's by playing NES American football and baseball games that i learned the rules and how those sports were even played. As for why i played these games in the first place when i didn't know or care for the actual sports, well, at that age I rented EVERY game I could get my hands on at least once. `Baseball stars got a few rentals, actually.

@jorymil 3 ай бұрын

"Seemingly any mediocre piece of crap voided from the opportunistic bowels of some random software house...." This is why I love your videos, Jeremy: some of your phrases are just awesome. "Chud-whining" is a new one on me, but it perfectly describes that class of male who secretly wishes they still lived in the 19th century.

@nintendianajones64 3 ай бұрын

Chrontendo is a great channel. Deserves way more views.

@matthammes4566 3 ай бұрын

Oh man I've been waiting for this one! This is easily the NES game I played the most as a kid.

@MrEd20901 3 ай бұрын

Fun game. The stat tracking was one of the best parts. No more pad and paper.

@oobgarm1 3 ай бұрын

Yes... Ha Ha ha... *YES!*

@digamejh 3 ай бұрын

You sicko. :)

@changkwangoh 3 ай бұрын

I'm not a baseball fan but I like the "hire, fire, trade, and create" player options on this one.

@lifestream_real 3 ай бұрын

Kinda like last week's video... This is, again, proof that the NES could *EASILY* punch above its weight, with being able to run a simulation game! A baseball simulator is a wonderful thing, and of course, it would be the amazing people up at SNK who gave us this franchise. Awesome.

@Trenell83 2 ай бұрын

Any notion of Etrian Odyssey in a video is a plus one in my books. Loved that rpg series.

@otakubullfrog1665 3 ай бұрын

I never wanted to fire a player because seeing him walk away with his dog while the sad music played got to me every time. Maybe the reason that sports reporters to this day euphemistically talk of baseball players being released by their organizations or placed on trade waivers rather than getting fired is because they all played Baseball Stars when they were kids.

@jorymil 2 ай бұрын

"Fire" is a pretty harsh word, whatever the job. Kind of like "dump" for a relationship (unless they were a real jerk).

@Tony-Bell 3 ай бұрын

This was the first baseball game I can recall where the outfielders could climb the wall and "steal a homerun". Check the attempt at 8:57. Were there any earlier games that had this?

@fenikso 3 ай бұрын

NGPC Works! Love that little system and have many of the games and systems. Can't wait!

@yinepuiwhite3955 2 ай бұрын

Day 4: I'm still not back from my chrontendo binge. I regret nothing.

@kennethchia4194 13 күн бұрын

OK we are playing right now and I am legitimately impressed it knows to reward a save for someone who comes in with a four-run lead and two runners on base

@jonothanthrace1530 3 ай бұрын

Oh hey, it's Simply Red!

@thejackal007 3 ай бұрын

Looking forward to the always fun (and difficult) Cobra Triangle!

@skipper__rd Ай бұрын

I love this game My family still plays it online with the Fightcade PC app

@fivestringpat 3 ай бұрын

I played this game more than anything else except maybe fonal fantasy, on my nes. Loved grinding money to inprove my team!

@RurouniZel 3 ай бұрын

Ah, the TFrogs. Nostalgic!

@JeremyParish 3 ай бұрын

Thanks for stickin' around, old-timer

@hansamurai 2 ай бұрын

I had Bases Loaded 2 as a kid, which I loved, but I wonder what kind of sim sicko I would have turned into if I had Baseball Stars instead.

@apollosungod2819 3 ай бұрын

Technically SNK's Baseball Stars is an arcade NES JRPG game that happened to plays baseball.

@zubizuva 3 ай бұрын

Lukewarm take: Dusty Diamond’s Softball is a good game.

@jorymil 2 ай бұрын

I agree! It had a unique twist with flying, bouncing, broom-and-pickaxe-wielding players and the different fields. The controls may have been the same as Famista, but it has replay value. And I was genuinely surprised at the final team as a kid. Knowing a little more about languages these days, it's obvious in retrospect!

@Poever 3 ай бұрын

I remember EGM would speak of Baseball Stars with nothing but the highest regard, moreso than the other contemporary baseball games they were reviewing in the Aughts

@erikrick 2 ай бұрын

This reminds me of my time with Base Wars

@RobertHMayfire 3 ай бұрын

Baseball Stars is the old sports game I rented from the old Mom & Pop Video Rental when I was a kid

@apollosungod2819 3 ай бұрын

To be fair to Nintendo Power Magazine... 1989 is the second full year of that magazine and it had just been converted through some hard efforts by Nintendo of America's management staff from a quarterly publication and into twelve issues a month... so I feel that Nintendo's NPM editor team made some gaffes as a result during the transition and did not give the SNK Baseball Stars game a more proper coverage it deserved... This should also hold true for the other American gamer magazines that basically began publication in 1989... because they didn't exist in 1988 and because Computer and Videogames magazine had a more "computer" oriented game and software coverage than Japanese videogame systems that would get highlighted but would never have an expanded coverage in those pages.

@fieldrituals 3 ай бұрын

The Cindy Lee + Baseball Stars mashup I didn’t know I needed.

@InfectiousGroovePodcast 3 ай бұрын

Awesome use of Roger Waters / Pink Floyd at the 4:59 mark !

@ValkyrieTiara 3 ай бұрын

Baseball Stars was one of my Holy Grails as a kid. My cousin (whose house I would visit only once or twice a year) had a copy, but I myself never managed to get my hands on one. I did have RBI Baseball though, which my mom ended up liking more than I ever did lol

@carlhannah1884 3 ай бұрын

This and Baseball Simulator 1.000 on SNES are still my top two baseball games.

@MrERLoner 3 ай бұрын

We used to play long seasons of this at Lucius,' house in the summer of 95. Grest times... Never was much for sports games or ball sports in general but baseball stars is a proverbial Home Run.

@marccaselle8108 3 ай бұрын

I rented this game a few times from blockbuster and it was the best baseball game to me for NES back then 🙂

@broy8172 3 ай бұрын

as a kid, I'd need baseball sim 1000's power ups to get me over the hump and play a baseball game, but this looks awesome. aside from everything else, you can see instantly how much more snappy and fast it is than all the weird low speed baseball games from before. fast enough to put it in the arcades, i guess you could say

@MrClawt 3 ай бұрын

The funny thing about baseball on the NES was that, my brother and I really didn't care much for real baseball outside of playing catch in the backyard, but we played the crap out of NES baseball games.

@nickspaeth444 3 ай бұрын

I have waited for this day :)

@Larry 2 ай бұрын

Wasn't there also a team in Baseball Stars made up of characters from other SNK games?

@jamesmoss3424 3 ай бұрын

Baseball Stars is an excellent SNK game. 😀👍⚾️🎮

@JustinLeeper 3 ай бұрын

My mom offered to buy me a $20 NES game at KB Toy one lucky day. My choices were Hydlide and Baseball Stars. I chose poorly. ⚔️

@jorymil 2 ай бұрын

I see what you did there.... :-)

@benkizer9509 3 ай бұрын

Baseball Stars was one of the best sports games on the NES, up there with Tecmo Bowl and Double Dribble.

@jep7080 3 ай бұрын

In our neighborhood the folks with baseball stars was the way to go after rbi baseball. The people with that Major League LJN game got no love.

@vincentgood2234 3 ай бұрын

I don't think you were actually sorry about saying "a league of their own." 😂

@abraveastronaut 3 ай бұрын

etrian odyssey mentioned

@bananonymouslastname5693 3 ай бұрын

Baseball Stars was easily the best baseball game on a console to that point, and for my money, was better than any 16 or 32 bit baseball game as well. For my money, it was the best baseball game ever until Major League Baseball featuring Ken Griffey Jr on Nintendo 64, which I don't think has been topped since gameplay-wise.

@demonpugo 3 ай бұрын

Quick mother reference, mother review soon or do we have to wait for nes works 2015 >.>

@rodneylives 3 ай бұрын

The people over at Secret Base should do a Breaking Madden-like series focusing on Baseball Stars!

@jorymil 2 ай бұрын

I actually really like Dusty Diamond's All-Star Softball. The different fields plus the player special abilities made it fun, even if a little derivative. Hey... everyone used A to jump, but it doesn't mean those games were derivatives of Mario, or even bad games. Dusty Diamond was of course no Baseball Stars.

@JeremyParish 2 ай бұрын

Yeah in hindsight it was the wrong snippet to include. It’s good goofy fun.

@bxsolx5086 3 ай бұрын

I remember a ROM hack back in 2003 titled "Baseball SARS"

@jonothanthrace1530 3 ай бұрын

I want a hack featuring the Resident Evil cast. Just keep the STARS name.

@kenreighard5071 3 ай бұрын

I don't recall the women's team being hidden content.

@Enoby_Darkness 2 ай бұрын

funny thing, I remember in Nintendo Power around mid 2000's or so, there was this minor drama going on with someone at Nintendo Power calling sports games RPGs. And well, Nintendo Power readers weren't having it.

@CaptainRufus 3 ай бұрын

Don't forget Baseball Stars cousin Super Baseball 2020. Which sadly wasn't remotely what real 2020 was like. I'll take land mines and robot players alongside jump pads over.. well the actual 2020.

@jjj4th 3 ай бұрын

The sickos at SNK were my favorite insurgents of the 8/16-bit era, the powerful Sanjuro watching Nintendo and Sega squaring off in the crime-ravaged streets below, especially once they dropped the MVS/AES hardware. It's too bad the more complex gameplay wrinkles of Baseball Stars for NES didn't make it into the Neo-Geo Baseball Stars 2 (at least on the home cart/CD side).

@jandrem 3 ай бұрын

I loved this game! The sequel was good, but they removed the ability to make teams and that was half the fun of the original!

@MiguelPaulettePerez-bj8ml 3 ай бұрын

You're not related to Stillwell Angel are you JP? Living in South Bend.. it was hard to support the Rockford outfit.

@tsvtsvtsv 2 ай бұрын

IT IS A FINE DAY

@jeffroberts9693 3 ай бұрын

My go to baseball game until Ken Griffey Jr. came out on SNES. Baseball Stars is so good.

@evenmorebetter 2 ай бұрын

I kind of feel like Ken Griffey was just Software Creations trying to do their own version of Neo Geo Baseball Stars 2 but for the SNES

@sneakyquick 3 ай бұрын

The best nes baseball game

@Riz2336 3 ай бұрын

Think baseball stars is good play the sequel on Neo-Geo hardware, now THATS a good baseball game of that era

@NearLife4life 3 ай бұрын

i love that you call them the "sickos at SNK! hahahaha!

@johnnygrind77 3 ай бұрын

A lot of people sleep on SNK games' soundtracks and it's a shame.

@andrewvevera3650 2 ай бұрын

What is a wren?

@Fear2Stop 3 ай бұрын

Notice how RBI baseball and Bases Loaded had similar music? What was up with that?

@GarrettCRW 3 ай бұрын

Those are actual songs that traditionally play at baseball games in Japan, where there’s a live band cheering on the home team throughout the entire game.

@Fear2Stop 3 ай бұрын

@@GarrettCRWwow! Didn’t know that!!!

@rootbeer_666 3 ай бұрын

Heh, imagine an rpg where the main character uses a baseball bat instead of the ultimate badass sword, that would be the dumbest goddamn thing. Scoff. That’s right, I just said the _word_ “scoff”, that’s what I think of that.

@targuscinco 3 ай бұрын

What is a team but a miserable pile of....oh, wait.

@jordankelsey4501 3 ай бұрын

7:59 i really wish that was Ben Matlock.

@leftyredbone 3 ай бұрын

Does anyone know why this version of the game never gets rereleased? SNK rereleases everything including the other versions and sequels of this game, but never this masterpiece.

@sneakyquick 3 ай бұрын

You can keep making teams over and over and trade for any 89 level players that are generated and make a team of all 89 players. You then play 2p games and build up your prestige of each player to 15 then you just play 2p games where you walk in ten runs using the lovely ladies and win, and you get cash until you level up all of your players.

@duckhive 3 ай бұрын

Simply Red

@Cory_ 3 ай бұрын

NGPC Works sounds like a miserable time because half of the episodes would be about casino games.

@JeremyParish 3 ай бұрын

That's why I'm only gonna cover the American library in full depth, because about 90% of the games rock

@goranisacson2502 2 ай бұрын

I never played this because I was a curmudgeonly sports hater at that age, but I do miss an era where games that weren't Mario could put out a sports game that didn't have licenses and still earn money. Everything having to follow the real player-names and real rules just made me even less interested in sports games.

@JGreen-le8xx 3 ай бұрын

I only recognize MLB baseball for the Intellivision as the one true baseball videogame. Especially against Atari baseball. Just ask George Plimpton...... oh wait he's dead.... 🤔 Too soon?....

@Daryoon 3 ай бұрын

Sports games were you build and manage your own team of misfits and weirdos will always be superior to those that just use real world rosters.

@One_Missing_Worker 3 ай бұрын

Sickos, Roger Waters, and Etrian Odyssey references in the same video. If the next video has a reference to the failure of German Social Democrats to prevent fascism I'm gonna put blackout sheets over my windows...

@etheweirdo_art 3 ай бұрын

Honestly that's wild you can use female players. I remember playing wwe 2k24 and being so confused that I couldn't do a match of the female wrestler vs the male wrestler. It's wild to me, this is a video game why can't I do that.